R.T. Kendall - Weve Never Been This Way Before: Trusting God in Unprecedented Times

You have never been this way before.

JOSHUA 3:4, NIV

WE ARE IN two major crises at the moment. Both are unprecedented. It might be said that we have been given a double whammy in the year 2020: (1) the coronavirus crisiswhich is a natural phenomenon, and (2) sudden civil unrest that has its origin in racial prejudice. It is impossible to say now which of these may be more difficult for our nation.

The Lord not only knows perfectly where we have been but equally knows where we are going. He realizes when we are facing the unprecedented. The fact that He graciously gave this word to the children of IsraelYou have never been this way beforereveals how loving and compassionate the God of the Bible is. I cannot imagine a more comforting or reassuring word than this word to the children of Israel. God said this to them as they prepared to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Landthe land of Canaan.

First of all, as I write this, we are still in what is probably the most significant natural crisis in the history of the whole world. It is called the coronavirus crisis because the outbreak of this virus has led to many people contracting the disease known as COVID-19. CO stands for corona.

VI stands for virus. D stands for disease. 2019 refers to the year it first emerged, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It is scary. Troubling. Even terrifying. We are all vulnerable. Not only has our way of life been at stake; our very lives are at stake. Our health is at stake. Our finances are at stake. The safety of our loved ones is at stake. What we have been familiar with all our lives will almost certainly never be quite the same again. The new normal is that nothing will be normal as we have known it. Virtually every person in the world is in some way touched by this.

And yet, secondly, when it appeared that the danger of COVID-19 was beginning to subside, another crisis suddenly emerged, causing some to think that it may be more impacting than what had already struck the nation with fear. It happened overnight when a White police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, put his knee on the neck of a helpless George Floyd, a Black man aged forty-six, for several minutes until he died. The news of this spread all over the world in twenty-four hours. Never in my lifetime have I known such outrage as was caused by this incident. Violent protests broke out in almost every large city. This was followed by peaceful protests that may lead to political and social change in many places.

I chose the title of this book, based on Gods words in Joshua 3:4, because they so aptly relate to our times. We are facing life with what has never been but also heading where we have never been.

God did not have to give this word to Joshua for him to pass on to the children of Israel. Joshua already knew that. But why did God order it to be said? It was a reminder that He was totally involved with what was going on in the lives of the children of Israel. He raised Moses to lead Israel and sent the ten plagues to Egypt. He led Israel to cross the Red Sea on dry land and then destroyed the armies of Pharaoh by drowning them in the Red Sea. It was God who sent supernatural foodthe mannato provide for them in the desert for forty years.

But now that era was over. The time had come at last for Israel to enter into their promised inheritance. However, their able leader, Moses, was not allowed to enter Canaan. This made the future more challenging. Before he died, the baton had been passed to Joshua. The buck now stopped with him. But when Moses died, God assured Joshua, Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you (Josh. 1:5).

Therefore, for God to bother to say to the children of Israel, You have never been this way before, revealed how intimately tied God was to the people of Israel and how tenderly and carefully He looked after them. Indeed, it shows He had got right into the peoples skin. Just as Jesus, our great High Priest, would be touched by our weaknesses thousands of years later (Heb. 4:15), so the eternal God had already tenderly demonstrated His love to ancient Israel. God wanted Joshua to know that He knew exactly what all were feeling; He knew everything that was in their minds. As the psalmist would later say,

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

PSALM 139:14

Israel was the Lords treasured possession (Deut. 7:6). Why did God feel this way about Israel? The only reason: because He loved them. But why? Not because they were numerous. Not because they were good. Not because they were worthy. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you (Deut. 7:78). So why did God love Israel? Because He did.

Why does God love any of us? Because He does. It is not because of our goodness but due to His purpose and grace (2 Tim. 1:9). That means we are utterly unworthy of His mercy and grace.

As Israel had to go forward without Moses, so do we have to face the future with new leaders. The revered leaders of the pastboth spiritual and politicalare no longer with us. Our parents, old friends, and people we have somehow leaned on for wisdom are gone. We feel daunted. Scared. Almost overwhelmed.

But it is equally true: as God was with Moses, so will He be with us. He does not want us to lean on the past. Say not, Why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this (Eccles. 7:10).

Today we are involuntarily outside our comfort zones. You and I did not decide to go outside our comfort zones. We were not consulted. That was decided for us. With little or no warning. Like it or not, we are all suddenly having to cope with the new and different.

I used to be a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. It was not where I wanted to be. It was a painful era. I was thrust outside my comfort zone; owing to deep debt I brought on myself (because I did not know how to handle money), I had to take a most unprestigious job that would pay the bills. Those were difficult days. Although that was over fifty years ago, hardly a week goes by to this day that I do not dream of struggling to sell vacuum cleaners to people who were not remotely in the market for such. I woke up recently recalling the line I used to get into a house to demonstrate my product. It was so humbling and embarrassing. While my fellow students at my old college in Nashville were pastoring churches, I would go up to a house, ring the doorbell, and say: Hello. I am R. T. Kendall. I have come to show you something new and different for your home. I did this for over six years.

The present crisesthe new and differentare not for sale. Money will not change things. The pain of COVID-19 makes my old job of selling vacuum cleanerseven if doors were slammed in my facenow seem like sheer comfort and joy. The continual threat of violence anywhereowing to someone doing or saying something unwiseis as unsettling as the fear of getting a fatal disease.

As for my previously mentioned point that we were not consulted whether we would allow these crises to come our way, the question is, Who did decide this? As for COVID-19, who brought this? The World Health Organization? China? The US military? Some government in the world? God? As for the sudden unrest troubling the nation owing to the cruel act of a police officer, who is to blame? Racial prejudice? Weak political leadership? Or is God responsible?